The coach that took a club to relegation has been hired by Bundesliga Champions? This is one of the most shocking hirings in recent times, and it has come out of nowhere.
The mighty Bayern Munich has given their head coaching job to a novice coach like Vincent Kompany, and it has surprised many. Never did I or anyone think we could say the sentence, the manager of Burnley, who’s just been relegated from the Premier League, has been poached by Bayern Munich to be the new manager.
Nevertheless, let’s explore in further detail the five biggest reasons why Bayern have made this choice.
5) Lack of Available Managers
Currently there’s a lack of top-class managers on the market. All the wanted managers are tied down to other clubs, and Bayern Munich don’t have the ability to prize away any manager they want like they used to in the past.
As smaller clubs now have the financial resources to match Bayern Munich, for example Aston Villa with Unai Emery.
It’s been joked that Kompany was Bayern’s eighth choice as manager because they failed in the pursuits of other managers like Xavi Alonso, Julian Nagelsmann, Hansi Flick, Ralf Ragnik, Zinedine Zidane, Robert De Zerbi, and even Man Utd’s Erik Ten Hag.
So with all those prospects not working out for various reasons, Kompany was then offered the job, and he was never going to turn down the opportunity to move from Burnley to Bayern Munich.
4) Kompany – A football Star in His Prime
Another reason is that Kompany was a former footballing superstar. If we imagine a world where a Burnley manager who had got the exact same achievements as Kompany did with Burnley, playing the exact brand of exciting football, and this manager wasn’t an ex-footballing legend, this manager wouldn’t get anywhere near the Bayern Munich job.
Kompany is a former legend, a former captain, that’s won a lot of trophies, so he gets that instant respect in the locker room. Kompany wasn’t just a former footballer though, he was a successful captain, and that adds weight to his name.
He was known for his leadership, his ability to motivate his teammates. So the Bayern bosses are hoping he can display those qualities, along with the style of play and tactical intelligence that he sort of showed at Burnley and they’re hoping he can implement that in Munich.
3) A Close Match Up To Xabi Alonso
Reason number three that Kompany has been hired is the direct effect of the domination Xabi Alonso has achieved in the Bundesliga with Bayern Leverkusen.
Xabi Alonso was Bayern Munich’s number one choice for replacement of Thomas Tuchel, but he rejected the chance to manage them, and he stayed with Leverkusen for another season.
Bayern were trying to weaken their biggest threat, who defeated them in the Bundesliga, and make themselves stronger, which is a classic Bayern move, but they failed, and now they have to face Leverkusen again this new season.
So by hiring Kompany, Bayern are hoping to achieve something similar is that an ex-footballing legend comes to the Bundesliga, comes from the same culture and philosophy of Pep Guardiola, and with Bayern having the much better individual players than Leverkusen, they’re hoping this is enough to defeat Xabi Alonso and Leverkusen.
Alonso has shown that possession style, build-up play can win in Germany again. Kompany will look to install the same philosophy, and he could try matching Xabi Alonso by fighting fire with fire.
Now, if you remember, Xavi Alonso had hardly the managerial resume before he joined Leverkusen also, so Kompany could be the next Xabi Alonso for Bayern Munich.
2) Clear Style of Play
Another reason on why Vincent Kompany has been hired is that he has a clear and distinctive style of play.
The past two seasons, Bayern have not been dominant on the pitch as they used to be. They scraped the Bundesliga and won it on the last day two seasons ago.
In the last season, they got battered by Leverkusen, and things haven’t been great at Munich tactically for a few years now. Whenever Bayern did have some problems, they were able to win the Bundesliga. When Bayern had some successes in matches, it came under counter-attacking football. They’ve relied on individual performances to win the matches.
The bosses of Bayern have not been happy with that, and they believe Bayern should always play on the front foot, dominate teams in possession.
Vincent Kompany has shown that this is how he plays. When his Burnley team were in the Championship, Division 2 of England, they absolutely demolished their opponents and in Kompany, in the Premier League, he couldn’t dominate the same way. That’s because he didn’t have the players that were good enough but he stuck to his principles. He showed that he was good enough to win the Champions League, and that came above everything, even if it meant losing.
Now, while Kompany was criticized for not being pragmatic enough, this was enough to impress Munich, because at least they can provide him with the best players in the league. All he has to do is just install his tactics and philosophy, and play the possession-attacking football that Bayern bosses want. They’re hoping that Bayern under Kompany can dominate the way Burnley dominated the Championship.
1) Pep Guardiola
The main and reason number one, why Vincent Kompany has been hired by Bayern Munich is because of the name Pep Guardiola.
Guardiola is the single most influential figure in the sport of football of modern times. Guardiola changed the way the game is played, and everyone plays like him.
Kompany is one of Guardiola’s direct disciples, because he was his captain at Man City. Kompany then went on to be a coach, and he showed that his tactics mimic Guardiola.
Bayern Munich were managed by Guardiola 10 years ago, of course, and it was a period of domination. Now, Bayern, after that, went in different directions. Since then, it’s been clear that they wish to go back to that style.
As mentioned in reason number two and three, Xabi Alonso and his possession-style tactics can dominate the Bundesliga. Xabi Alonso is also a direct disciple of Guardiola, and he plays the exact same way that Guardiola wants his team to play.
Bayern Munich have sculpted the state of European football, and they’ve noticed that Guardiola’s disciples are doing well everywhere. From Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, Xavi at Barcelona, new Liverpool manager Arne Slot, Postacoglu at Tottenham, new Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca. These are all managers that play the exact way of Guardiola.
They’ve realised that hiring a manager from the Guardiola coaching tree is the closest thing to hiring the man himself, since he’s unavailable and it’s the best way right now in European football to increase the chances of success.
That was the five top reasons Bayern Munich took the risk by hiring Vincent Kompany.
Thanks for reading.